193 



'ihe United States. Notice of the fisliery In particular towiis and neio-h- 

 borhoods is not necessary, and our attention will be confined to such 

 places as will serve to give a general view of it as prosecuted on both 

 rivers and seas. 



Washington, in describing his Mount Vernon estate to Arthur Young, 

 remarked that its margin was "washed by more than ten miles of tide- 

 water;" that "several valuable fisheries appertained to it;" and that 

 "the whoje shore, in short, was one entire fishery." A shad or herring 

 fishery appurtenant to an estate on the Potomac adds much to its value 

 at the present time. As elsewhere, the herring sometimes fails to ap- 

 pear in this river, and the disappointment of the planters and their 

 servants is extreme. There are 3a"ars of great success. In 1831, fifty, 

 and even one hundred thousand fish were frequently taken at a hau'l. 

 In 1836 no less than three hundred wagons were at one place at one 

 time, each teamster " waiting his turn." On the other hand, the fishery 

 in 1843 was. unprofitable and disastrous; the outfit was large, and 

 many new landings were opened, but the fishermen cut out their seines 

 at the close of the season unrewarded and in sadness. Better results 

 followed in 1844, and the businessof catching, buying, counting, dress- 

 ing, washing, and salting, was animated at most of the principal land- 

 ings on both sides of the river, from Alexandria to the vicinity of the 

 Capes. In 1851, fourteen, twenty-five, and in one case ninety-five 

 thousand herrings were taken at a haul, and those engaged in the fishery 

 were fairty rewarded tt)r their capital and labor. 



The sea fishery in Maine, from the Penobscot to the frontier, and in 

 the Bay of Fundy, is the most important. The herring in this region 

 is cured by salting and smoking, and by salting and pickling. When 

 by the first method, it is paeked in boxes; when by the latter, in 

 barrels. They were caught for many years by means, principally, of 

 lighted torches, made of the outer bark of the white birch. The prac- 

 tice w^as, and, to some extent, still is, to place a light of this description 

 in the bow of a small boat, about the favorite resorts of the herring, on 

 very dark nights, and to bail in, with a dip-net, all that w-ere attracted 

 to the surface of the water. A boat requires four men; one to dip, two 

 to row, and one to steer. While in pursuit, the boat moves with great 

 velocity, that the fish may be induced to follow the light, and that they 

 may be kept within reach of the man with the net, who stands in the 

 bow. The islanders in the Bay of Passamaquoddy have a story that 

 the discovery of the attracting properties of light was accidental. They 

 relate that a fishermnn who lived on Campo Bello,* and who chanced 

 one night to be on the side of one of its little harbors opposite to his 

 own house, on remembering that he had no fire at home, took some 

 chips and coals in a skillet to carry across; that, during the passage, 

 the chips took fire and blazed up; and, on his landing, he f)und that a 

 large number of herrings had Ibllowed him to the shore ; and that this 

 circumstance induced experiments, which resulted in abandoning the 

 former practice of using "set-nets" and "wears." But whatever the 

 origin of the torch-lights, they afford to the inhabitants of the frontier 



* An island opposite Eastport, and on the British side of the bay, and owned by Admiral 

 Owcti, of the royal navy. 

 13 



